Influx

Here's a brief element of some nice research done by IBM, who went out last year and explored global consumer expectations of social media and contrasted those with the reasons executives believed consumers followed them on social sites.  The results are startling...Consumers want...To buyTo...

Having spent the day at The ARF's rethink conference, I have social media on my brain; there wasn't one speaker who didn't mention it, the exhibitors room was packed with social media analysis companies and there was only Grant McCracken who stood up for the humble 30 sec television spot. What...

Here's a great initiative from Nokia for snowboarders, it uses Bluetooth linked sensors to provide boarders with detailed data on their runs. It's like Nike+, but designed with snowboarders in mind and a great example of the new world of rich consumer generated data.  Every brand should take a...

Twitter and others tell me that many who attended the presentation by, Blake Mycoskie, the founder of TOMS at SXSW left feeling inspired. After a few days listening to kids talking about how they wanted to be the next Zuckerberg, in light of recent events, the positive response might not be all...

Microsoft has been a tough place to be in recent years, but here's an interesting example of a design team looking outside their category to find relevant inspiration and surely a lesson for everyone to escape from their familiar comfort zone. "A couple years ago the Windows Phone design team...

A great slide from Hugh Hendry's presentation that shows just how tough it is for steel companies to make money. Hendry points out that because of this situation China's Wuhan Oil and Steel has been forced to diversify to such an extent, that it's now selling wine and olive oil.  Posted by Ed...

While Mumford and Sons might be one of the most despised bands of the moment, accused of and charged as guilty for hijacking American folk music and selling it back. However, they are shifting units thanks to a loyal following of fans and an interesting approach to building and marketing their...

The Past, Present and Future of Great Ideas View more presentations from Edward Cotton When it comes to benchmarking greatness in the world of communication, it's never been tougher. The old formula of making a better 30 second spot than 99.5% of the output, doesn't suffice any more. The...

Techcrunch has a series of video interviews with Denis Crowley, the founder of Foursquare, which covers a lot of ground.Crowley amplifies the importance of building stuff over sketching, but what's important is that he's doing this with a grand vision in mind.His drive to build is inspired by the...

We are at a point in time where imagination is pretty much the only constraint for business development. The opportunity to fast-track and build out a digital business that can compliment and take advantage of the existing business. A great example of this is the Wal-Mart owned Asda UK grocery...

Netbase is one of dozens of companies that measure social media. They out together a handy graphic to measure what they define as "brand passion" based out of social conversations.What's interesting to see in the tech space is how not unexpectedly, Apple and Twitter dominate the passion zone and to...

The ad industry is going through something of a cultural shift and will emerge in a new space where collaboration is going to be a critical component for success,However, collaboration requires trust, honesty and a willingness to work together. This month the One, the One Show has an interesting...

"At GEICO, for example, we enthusiastically spent $900 million last year onadvertising to obtain policyholders who deliver us no immediate profits. If we could spend twice that amount productively, we would happily do so though short-term results would be further penalized.."Warren Buffett-Letter...

HP's gleaming new CEO was just interviewed by the WSJ and they asked a great question.What is your vision for H-P moving forward? "We are right in the process of shaping it. H-P is an extraordinary company that has managed to keep much of its greatness secret. H-P needs to...

Journalists at Murdoch's iPad paper, The Daily, were given clear instructions by their editor yesterday to find compelling stories."We need to get out there and start finding more compelling stories from around the country - not just scraping the web and the wires, but getting out on the ground and...